Monday, November 10, 2003

Efrain Ríos Montt, 77, a coup leader, former dictator, religious fanatic, and fomenter of genocide, has failed to make the runoffs for the Guatemalan presidency. I blame age discrimination.

Seriously, the first business of the new president has to be purging the courts of the clowns who allowed the candidacy to go ahead in violation of the constitution. Trying Ríos Montt for genocide would be good, too.

Speaking of dinosaurs and elections, and don’t get me started on Haley Barbour, described by the Daily Show as the candidate of Big Drawl, Shevardnadze just stole an election in Georgia. The number of post-Soviet states in which the leader was elected by an even halfway believable electoral process is now zero, if my count is correct.

(Later): Shevardnadze has fled the capital, possibly in advance of a vicious crackdown. Keep an eye on Tbilisi.

The Israeli Cabinet agrees to one of those lopsided prisoner exchanges that show the relative value placed on Jews in relation to non-Jews, releasing 400 live Arabs from various nations in exchange for one kidnapped Israeli drug dealer and 3 dead soldiers.

Al Qaida seems finally to have committed an atrocity capable of pissing off the Arab world (assuming it’s really responsible), without even killing off Deputy Secretary of State Richard “Dude, where’s my neck?” Armitage. Armitage says the bombing is part of an attempt to topple the Saudi monarchy, but fails to explain why that would be a bad thing.

CBS head Les Moonves tells Daily Variety that there was absolutely no pressure on him to censor the movie about the Reagans. He said it was a “moral decision,” not a political or economic one. Speaking of which, CBS’s crappy Hitler movie last spring: the filming was observed by rabbis.

William Saletan in Slate says what I’ve been thinking: “When he seizes on Dean's flag comment to bash Yankees who think they "know what's best for you," Edwards is asking for the Confederate-flag vote on much creepier grounds than Dean did.”

I haven’t said anything thus far about the NY Times report a few days ago that Iraq was offering inspections by the US military, and elections. I still have no idea how seriously to take it, nor how serious the offer was. Since it was rejected outright, we’ll never know either. George Monbiot, who adds that offers to negotiate from the Taliban were also rejected before the war, makes a better case for outrage, giving quotes from Bush & Blair that it was Saddam’s choice, and he’d been given every opportunity to negotiate, when in fact his offers were shot down.

The Institute of Physics, which clearly has too much time on its hands, has condemned the diet of Homer Simpson as being not at all healthy. They say Bart is heading down the same road, and watches too much tv, as opposed to the clowns who watched all the Simpsons videos counting donuts.

Footage of Bush prancing around on the aircraft carrier has finally appeared in the first campaign ad--John Kerry’s.

Speaking of aircraft, the US has escalated its attacks on the Iraqi Resistance, employing airstrikes. That’s new. Also, they shot dead the head of the city council of Sadr City, in a story that I suspect is very interesting, if we ever get to hear it.

Michael Moore (who appears in next week’s Simpsons, and could use a few less donuts himself): “it's only fair that for every kid that dies, Halliburton has to slay a mid-level executive.”

A Louisiana judge went to a Halloween party dressed in black face, with an afro wig, wearing a prisoner costume.

Read the transcript of Scott McClellan explaining how the Bush admin is screwing POWs from the 1st Gulf War because no amount of money can compensate them, so they’ll be compensated with no amount of money. You have to read the whole thing to get the effect, which is hilarious.